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Tag Archives | Gay

Freud (1856–1939) was skeptical of the possibility of therapeutic conversion.

Not surprisingly several paying customers want their money back (and a whole lot more in damages) after undergoing so-called “gay conversion therapy.” Erik Eckholm reports for the New York Times:

Gay “conversion therapy,” which claims to help men overcome unwanted same-sex attractions but has been widely attacked as unscientific and harmful, is facing its first tests in the courtroom.

In New Jersey on Tuesday, four gay men who tried the therapy filed a civil suit against a prominent counseling group, charging it with deceptive practices under the state’s Consumer Fraud Act.

The former clients said they were emotionally scarred by false promises of inner transformation and humiliating techniques that included stripping naked in front of the counselor and beating effigies of their mothers. They paid thousands of dollars in fees over time, they said, only to be told that the lack of change in their sexual feelings was their own fault.

Apparently the most popular internet search question we have about celebrities is whether or not they are gay. Even, or perhaps especially, the Pope. Via the New York Times:

There are the questions you ask friends, family and close confidants. And then there are the questions you ask the Internet.

Search engines have long provided clues to the topics people look up. But now sites like Google and Bing are showing the precise questions that are most frequently asked, giving everyone a chance to peer virtually over one another’s shoulders at private curiosities. And they are revealing interesting patterns.

Frequently asked questions include: When will the world end? Is Neil Armstrong Muslim? Was George Washington gay?

The questions come from a feature that Google calls “autocomplete” and Microsoft calls “autosuggest.” These anticipate what you are likely to ask based on questions that other people have asked. Simply type a question starting with a word like “is” or “was,” and search engines will start filling in the rest.

According to this article in THE ADVOCATE, the American Family Association considers Hurricane Isaac to be yet another punishment from God aimed at homosexuals. In the article, Pastor John McTernan provides some fascinating numerological & etymological support for theory, noting that the name “Isaac” means “laughter” and it’s been 7 years since Katrina:

Defend & Proclaim the Faith’s Pastor John McTernan wrote Monday that the hurricane’s landfall and the scheduling of Southern Decadence is no coincidence. “Isaac, of course, is a biblical name meaning laughter,” he wrote. “The fact the events are seven years apart is very significant as this number is biblically important. It is the number of completion: God created the universe in seven days. The church, city and nation have not repented and the homosexual agenda is far worse than it was in 2005.”

Previous to Hurricane Isaac, others have shared the same sentiment. The Reverend Grant Storms, a veteran antigay activist who has railed against Southern Decadence, was recently convicted of indecent exposure for masturbating in public.

Even a man who thought that women all want to have sex with their fathers and spend much of their life distraught because they lack a penis is right sometimes. This person, the legend that is Sigmund Freud, theorized that people often have the most hateful and negative attitudes towards things they secretly crave, but feel that they shouldn't have.
If Freud is right, then perhaps men who are the most opposed to male homosexuality have particularly strong homosexual urges for other men.
One study asked heterosexal men their attitudes toward male homosexuality. Based on these scores, they then divided these men into two groups: men that are homophobic, and men who are not. These men were then shown three, four minute videos. One video depicted straight sex, one depicted lesbian sex and one depicted gay male sex. While this was happening, a device was attached to the male participant's penises. This device has been found to be triggered by sexual arousal, but not other types of arousal.

Is this really helping them gain ‘purity’ or is it just an outlet for the pastor to act on his homosexual impulses without having regret? The thirty-one year old pastor admitted to engaging in sexual contact as a means of ‘praying’ for the teens. The Raw Story reports:

A former youth pastor arrested in Iowa on 60 counts of suspicion of sexual exploitation allegedly told teenage boys he was trying to help them gain “sexual purity in the eyes of God.”

Thirty-one-year-old Brent Girouex, a former youth pastor at Victory Fellowship Church in Council Bluffs, turned himself in to the police in February after four young men came forward with allegations against him, The Daily Nonpareil reported.

Girouex has been released on a $30,000 bond and is due back in court on April 21. If found guilty, he faces up to five years on each charge.

Court documents show Girouex told investigators he had sexual contact with a teenage boy 25 to 50 times over a four-year period, starting when the boy was 14-years-old.

No longer want to be gay in the 21st century? There’s an app for that. While it’s hard to believe that anyone would buy this to be used seriously, it’s encouraging to see how many people were so quick to demand it’s removal. Over 90,000 people have already signed a petition against it. The Atlantic reports:

Gay rights activists are outaged — and rightfully so. More than 90,000 people have signed a petition hosted on Change.org demanding that Apple remove an application from the iTunes Store that promises to deliver “freedom from homosexuality through the power of Jesus Christ.”

Developed by Exodus International, an Orlando, Florida-based Christian organization, the application claims to be “a useful resource for men, women, parents, students, and ministry leaders.” But Truth Wins Out, a nonprofit organization that defends the LGBT community against anti-gay misinformation campaigns, finds the app offensive at best. “Exodus’ message is hateful and bigoted,” the petition states.